Born in 2017, Maison M is a sunshine fuelled lifestyle brand, founded by Mooi Ginsburg and Margherita Hunt. What started originally as a platform to document and share a love of vintage and artisanal products, naturally grew into a brand of its own, showcasing the stories of these travels through the designs themselves. From the UK, to Morocco, Nepal and India - everything we make is made by hand in small family-run ateliers with skills passed down over generations. It's a slow and careful process and the end results are all the more beautiful for it.

Maison M

Stripe Pochette Slate + Pickle

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Mustard stripe Toiletry Pouch

Patchwork Denim Tote Bag

Stripe Pochette Colbolt + Mint

Sitting somewhere between an introvert and an extrovert, the idea of travelling solo was something I both debated and fretted over. In 2023, a week after my birthday, I took the leap and headed to the sandy beaches of the Maldives. Three years on, it still feels surreal to type that sentence.

How to Travel Solo? Advice for Introverts and Extroverts!

Britain is not, on paper, an obvious beach destination. The water is cold, the weather is unpredictable, and yet - on the right day, at the right tide - there are stretches of coastline here that rival anywhere in the world. Powder-white sand backed by machair grassland in the Outer Hebrides. Vast, empty dune systems in Norfolk that make you feel genuinely alone. Dramatic sea stacks off the Antrim coast, turquoise coves in Cornwall that look lifted from somewhere considerably further south. The secret, of course, is knowing where to go, and being prepared to get a little windswept getting there.

The Best Beaches in the UK

From the sun-drenched hills of Tuscany to the whitewashed shores of Mílos, Europe’s most beautiful summer stays promise slow mornings, long lunches and unforgettable views. Check into Il Palazzotto or Casa Newton for romantic Italian charm, or escape to Hotel Mediterraneo on Kastellorizo for turquoise waters and laid-back glamour. In Portugal, Muxima in Aljezur offers barefoot luxury, while La Colombe d’Or in St Paul-de-Vence remains an icon for art lovers. Marseille’s Tuba Club, Nice’s Hotel du Couvent and Mallorca’s Hotel Corazón capture the effortless elegance of a Mediterranean summer escape.

Top European Summer Hotels

There is a particular kind of swimming that has nothing to do with lanes, lap counters, or chlorine. It happens at the edge of things - where land meets ocean, where rock has been shaped by tide and time, where the water is cold and alive and connected to something much larger than a pool. It happens in places that were carved by volcanoes, built by hand during the Depression, or simply discovered one afternoon at the end of a rocky path.
They exist on almost every coastline in the world, and no two are alike. Some are grand civic monuments, art deco curves cut against a crashing surf. Some are nothing more than a hollow in the lava, filled twice a day by the Atlantic. Some are free, some are heritage listed, some require a scramble down a cliff to reach. What they share is harder to define - a quality of place, of wildness held just barely in check, of swimming that feels like it actually means something.
This is a celebration of the best of them. From the sun-bleached rock pools of Australia to the volcanic coastlines of Iceland and Madeira, from the lidos of Cornwall to a hidden lagoon on a Greek island most people haven't heard of - these are the pools worth travelling for. Bring a towel. The water's cold. Get in anyway!

The World's Best Sea Pools

Bathing, it turns out, has never really been about hygiene. We sat down with Sharmadean Reid, founder of fragrance and bathing brand 39BC, to explore the quiet resurgence of bath culture - and why stepping into hot water feels increasingly radical. She traces the ritual roots of bathing from Roman thermae to Japanese onsen, reflects on the childhood memory that sparked 39BC's founding idea, and makes a compelling case for why the bath is one of the last spaces untouched by optimisation culture. Plus: the seasonal scents she reaches for, the contemporary bathhouse she'd build, and her vision for what bathing, at its best, can actually give you back.

Bathing Is Back

For actor Emma Appleton, home is for in-between days. Her home is full of colour and character; designed for late night kitchen parties and slow mornings reading Patrick Melrose, somewhere that always offers comfort.

Emma Appleton

Some houses explain an artist better than any retrospective. The places on this list weren't just lived in - they were made, obsessively, room by room, often over decades. A cobalt-blue courtyard in Coyoacán. A glass box lifted above the São Paulo rainforest. A Sussex farmhouse where no surface escaped a paintbrush. Most are open to visit, a few take planning, and all of them reward it. These are ten worth knowing about.